China

China

Moses Ling, associate professor of architectural engineering, took fifteen Penn State students on a seven-week journey from Beijing to Hong Kong this summer to look at the world overseas and encourage them to think bigger than central Pennsylvania.

From Beijing to Shanghai and all points in between, a three-week class offered through the College of Engineering provides students from across the University a tour de force of Chinese history and culture.

Seven Penn State students recently returned from the Dalian University of Technology (DUT) in China as part of a six-week study abroad program to generate interest among junior and senior undergraduate students in business, economics, and policy as related to energy and the environment.

The popular Penn State massive open online course "Creativity, Innovation and Change" will be available in Chinese when it is launched July 14. The course, which explores the science of creativity, is the first dual-language MOOC for Penn State.

Penn State Brandywine Global Programs invites students to embark on the journey of a lifetime by studying in one of two destinations over spring break 2014: China or Italy. During these weeklong excursions, students will earn credits as award-winning faculty guide them through several courses and cities. Both programs take place March 7 through 15.

John Haddad explores the 1784 first voyage to China by Americans who were seeking wealth, to convert China to Christianity and even to command a Chinese Army in his new book, "America’s First Adventure in China." Haddad, associate professor of American studies and popular culture at Penn State Harrisburg, provides a colorful narrative history of how China and America first met, focusing on the lives and experiences of American traders, missionaries and adventurers as they traveled to a foreign land unaware that the United States even existed.

The growth of high topography on the Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan, China, began much earlier than previously thought, according to an international team of geologists who looked at mountain ranges along the eastern edge of the plateau.

The Indian tectonic plate began its collision with Asia between 55 and 50 million years ago, but "significant topographic relief existed adjacent to the Sichuan Basin prior to the Indo-Asian collision," the researchers report online in Nature Geoscience.

Dean Wan Meng and Associate Dean Russell Leu of Beijing Foreign Studies University School of Law visited Penn State Law recently, exploring ways to increase opportunities for J.D. and LL.M. students in Beijing. They took part in real-time videoconferencing in the Lewis Katz Building and learned about Penn State Law videoconference events with counterparts in Uganda, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Wan Meng and Leu were interested in learning more about the equipment, its design, and cost; replicating the same technology could help BFSU Law School expand its international reach.

This past summer, a group of 38 students and faculty from Penn State and Jiagnan University journeyed to Lake Taihu in Wuxi, China, as part of a united research effort to study the country's third largest freshwater lake. The experience was part of a course co-taught by Rachel Brennan, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at University Park, and Jacqueline McLaughlin, associate professor of biology at Penn State Lehigh Valley.

As part of a long-term globalization initiative at Penn State, David Hall, dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), along with Penn State President Graham Spanier and a delegation of faculty members that included seven IST professors, visited China earlier this summer. The purpose of the trip was to strengthen ties with Peking University, a major research university located in Beijing, as well as to explore further opportunities for collaboration with Chinese universities.

The reality of urbanization and industrialization is leaving a mark on an important life-sustaining resource -- water -- especially in China. Students from Penn State University and China's Jiangnan University recently addressed the problem head-on, undertaking field research on the shores of Lake Taihu, China's third largest fresh water lake, from May 14-31. While there, they studied the effects of industrial, municipal and urban development within Jiangsu Province- -- one of the most industrialized regions in China -- and offered strategic suggestions for the lake's restoration.

George Andrews, Evan Pugh professor of mathematics at Penn State, has been has been awarded an honorary professorship at Nankai University in China. Andrews receives this honor in recognition of his many important contributions to research fields including number theory and combinatorics. In addition, he is recognized for solving a number of well-known long-standing problems in these fields. Andrews has expressed that, as an honorary professor of Nankai University, he would do his best to support the teaching and research projects at the Nankai University's Center for Combinatorics -- one of the leading national academic institutions for mathematical research.

Roughly 20 Penn State students, most from the Lehigh Valley campus, depart on Thursday, May 19 for a short-term study abroad experience in Beijing, China (see previous story, "Faculty collaborate to create global citizens"). Led by two Penn State Lehigh Valley professors, the students will spend two weeks studying communication and business topics at the Capitol University of Economics and Business, as well as tour some of the historical and cultural highlights of the emerging world power. While there, one Lehigh Valley student, D. Samuel Greene, will blog about his and fellow classmates' experience.